Threats of Violence in Counseling and Psychotherapy Settings

Introduction: Media, Misinformation, and the Counselor's Role

There is an urban legend about an incident at a mental hospital caught on video: a psychotic patient with a history of threatening violent acts manages to smuggle a screwdriver from a workman. Armed with the screwdriver, the patient barricades himself in a room, takes a nurse hostage, and does not respond well to attempts made by psychiatrists and police officers. In the end, the patient stabs the nurse fatally in the neck. The supposed incident — which circulated the semi-underground video circuit for decades, reportedly included on Faces of Death Volume IV — is actually a poorly staged reenactment of an event that probably never occurred. However, tales such as these have inevitably become part of the collective subconscious of a modern society still terrified by the mentally ill and any other "abnormal" members.

Inaccurate profiling persists as a remnant from the heyday of phrenology and physiognomy. Actual threats are often missed simply because they do not fit stereotypical expectations of who may become violent, while innocent and nonviolent people are wrongfully suspected by peers attempting to eliminate all violent threats preemptively. Combined with modern fears about workplace and school massacres, spousal and child abuse, serial killers, and terrorist attacks, many counselors and psychotherapists find themselves combating massive amounts of misinformation spoon-fed to the public through sensationalist media coverage.

Unfortunately, even trained counselors and psychotherapists are not immune to the harmful effects of public perception. At the same time, Americans are both terrified and fascinated by violence — fixated on it in many respects, yet a dangerous number of people turn a blind eye to telltale signs that a threat exists and could be prevented. It is the responsibility of counselors and psychotherapists to educate the public, as well as themselves, regarding the daily threats of violence present in our society: how to recognize a violent threat, how to defuse a situation to avoid a violent outcome, and how to help individuals overcome the harmful effects of violence. Threats of violence are common in the workplace, in the school, and in the domestic setting.